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Just ordered a refurb Macbook Pro off of Apple's website.

jamesryanbell

jamesryanbell

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 17, 2009
2,171
93
Unibody, 2.53Ghz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD, glossy screen. $2099. I'm pretty stoked about it. :) It's my first Macbook Pro.

What I'm not stoked about is *why* I had to get it. Spilled coffee all over the screen, hinge, and upper few keys of my black macbook that I got in late summer of '08, and the screen freaked out. :( Apple wants either $800 or $1240 to fix it ("depending on how bad it is inside"), but I elected not to do that. I'm having another mac repair service company take a look at it. It was a nice machine, but I can't justify shelling out that much to fix it. I'd just rather upgrade. If the repairs aren't as bad elsewhere, I'm eventually going to have it fixed and give it to my mom (she's wanting a MB just for the OS and minor business activities).

I've never bought a refurb before. Hope this was a good decision, as you guys are the ones who made me feel ok about it. LOL.
 
Congratulations on your purchase. If the other apple repair place is unable to save your blackbook, you may be able to sell it for parts on eBay and recover some of the costs.
 
Why does it say "Buy only if you need it" on the MacBook Pro Buyer's Guide on this forum? I thought the unibody Pros just came out?!?
 
jamesryanbell said:
Why does it say "Buy only if you need it" on the MacBook Pro Buyer's Guide on this forum? I thought the unibody Pros just came out?!?
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was wondering the same thing, thinking about buying the MBP also but when i saw that i was like... uhhh...? .. probably receiving my MBP on sunday or saterday
 
Congrats. But i think you probably would of gotten a new one cheaper from macmall or macconnection since the apple store charges you tax.
 
scuzy said:
Congrats. But i think you probably would of gotten a new one cheaper from macmall or macconnection since the apple store charges you tax.
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Sorry, that's actually misleading. I bought a refurb from Apple online. I paid no tax whatsoever. I live in Oregon, and we have no sales tax.

Your state of residence might charge you sales tax, and require Apple to collect it - which is different. If you live in a state with no sales tax, you won't get taxed - period. If you do, you will. Just like buying in a brick and mortar store.
 
Tomorrow said:
As long as the stock configuration is OK for your needs, you won't have any problems with the refurb.

Sorry about the black MB, though :(
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I may upgrade the hard drive to a SSD eventually, but other than that, yeah, the specs are more than enough for me. :)
 
jamesryanbell said:
Why does it say "Buy only if you need it" on the MacBook Pro Buyer's Guide on this forum? I thought the unibody Pros just came out?!?
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It says they were released Oct. 14th, so it's been over 5 months. That's a decent amount of time, but then again there aren't any rumors of new ones coming out soon. The 17 inch came out a couple months later, so maybe that's why it still seems brand new?
 
cawesjmu said:
It says they were released Oct. 14th, so it's been over 5 months. That's a decent amount of time, but then again there aren't any rumors of new ones coming out soon. The 17 inch came out a couple months later, so maybe that's why it still seems brand new?
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I was just under the impression that the components were the "upgrades" every few months, but that the general design (the "unibody") stayed around for a couple of years. Am I wrong? Again, you guys are the experts, not me. I've only been in the world of Mac for about a year.
 
jamesryanbell said:
Unibody, 2.53Ghz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD, glossy screen. $2099. I'm pretty stoked about it. :) It's my first Macbook Pro.

What I'm not stoked about is *why* I had to get it. Spilled coffee all over the screen, hinge, and upper few keys of my black macbook that I got in late summer of '08, and the screen freaked out. :( Apple wants either $800 or $1240 to fix it ("depending on how bad it is inside"), but I elected not to do that. I'm having another mac repair service company take a look at it. It was a nice machine, but I can't justify shelling out that much to fix it. I'd just rather upgrade. If the repairs aren't as bad elsewhere, I'm eventually going to have it fixed and give it to my mom (she's wanting a MB just for the OS and minor business activities).

I've never bought a refurb before. Hope this was a good decision, as you guys are the ones who made me feel ok about it. LOL.
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I usually keep away from anything refurbished, can you post some pictures? I heard that the cover at the bottom isn't flush on refurbs.
 
pyromaniaque said:
I usually keep away from anything refurbished, can you post some pictures? I heard that the cover at the bottom isn't flush on refurbs.
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I just ordered it about an hour ago. haha. No pics yet. I'll post some later if you like. I've heard the opposite....I've heard there's no aesthetic differences whatsoever. However, I'm just going off of what people on this forum and one other one are telling me.
 
jamesryanbell said:
I just ordered it about an hour ago. haha. No pics yet. I'll post some later if you like. I've heard the opposite....I've heard there's no aesthetic differences whatsoever. However, I'm just going off of what people on this forum and one other one are telling me.
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Actually on the Macbook/Pros, apple designed them so that AS LONG as you open the battery cover, it is slightly, just slightly raised. This happens to everyone's Macbook/Pro and there have been threads about that. Since the Macbook Pro IS refurbished, chances are, the battery cover was opened.
 
jamesryanbell said:
I just ordered it about an hour ago. haha. No pics yet. I'll post some later if you like. I've heard the opposite....I've heard there's no aesthetic differences whatsoever. However, I'm just going off of what people on this forum and one other one are telling me.
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thats the nice thing about apple's referb's. you can treat them like a new computer. if your not 100% happy with it you can just tell them and they will fix/replace it just like it was new.
 
jamesryanbell said:
I was just under the impression that the components were the "upgrades" every few months, but that the general design (the "unibody") stayed around for a couple of years. Am I wrong? Again, you guys are the experts, not me. I've only been in the world of Mac for about a year.
Click to expand...

That's how it works. The current style will be here for around two years.
 
Congratulations on the purchase.

Don't worry about the silly timeline; you have a great machine and they just updated a month ago. You won't be seeing any design changes.
 
alphaod said:
Congratulations on the purchase.

Don't worry about the silly timeline; you have a great machine and they just updated a month ago. You won't be seeing any design changes.
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:whew:

That's what I thought. Call me a tech whore, but it really bothers me if major upgrades happen right after I buy something. Small upgrades don't bother me....just total redesigns and such. That's what I thought the other FAQ was talking about, and it didn't make sense to me. haha.
 
jamesryanbell said:
:whew:

That's what I thought. Call me a tech whore, but it really bothers me if major upgrades happen right after I buy something. Small upgrades don't bother me....just total redesigns and such. That's what I thought the other FAQ was talking about, and it didn't make sense to me. haha.
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No total redesign for awhile. Maybe 2 years or even more. Congrats and enjoy it.
 
With respect to refurbs: I bought a refurb MBP and apart from the plain brown box, it was totally indistinguishable from brand new. That's what everyone else on the forums always say, and I can confirm that (in my experience, anyway) it is true.
 
notjustjay said:
With respect to refurbs: I bought a refurb MBP and apart from the plain brown box, it was totally indistinguishable from brand new. That's what everyone else on the forums always say, and I can confirm that (in my experience, anyway) it is true.
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:)
 
Don't Fear the Refurb !

Don't Fear the Refurb!....Sounds like a Song Title....LOL I am using my BBP refurb to write this and has been flawless, and you can't tell it from a new one.....Don't fear the refurb.:):apple:
 
Refurbs are great deals. I'll never buy anything, but refurbs from now on. You just have to keep an eye on what's in the pipeline because it always changes.
 
Came in today, and I'm migrating the data from Time Machine now. FLAWLESS. I love it. :)
 
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